Nothing That Has Happened So Far Has Been Anything We Could Control
by Jugband Arnold
Summary: Assume all assumptions; Set during Shaw's beginnings with the ISA and Root's well - roots; whilst Finch was probably experimenting to find the right man in the suit. I think it's a nice prelude to the show. I think. Apologies for all errors, and thanks for all feedback.
1. Tame Impala: Bold Arrow of Time

Day 1:

 _What a place to begin work._

Shaw was carefully observing the brunette inside the tiny yet cozy house, following her every move with careful attention. This was her first mission from the ISA, and she was determined to nail it. At least that way she wouldn't have to do lame runs like this one. Whoever the dumb idiot at the ISA was, he was surely going to regret assigning her this. Shaw was all set and ready to go– except the 'nice lady' she was supposed to be keeping an eye on for now was rushing up and down and all about the house – picking up odds and ends from various corners and gearing up to leave for the supermarket somewhere nearby. Shaw was quite excited – and on the verge of breaking through the glass and yelling at the god damn woman to just leave for the supermarket already so that she could get to work. The woman however didn't seem to be going anywhere anytime soon.

Shaw decided to pass sometime by reviewing the mission and what it exactly was. It was a completely odd, random mission – but Shaw was taught to not ask questions and just follow orders – something she excelled at with relative ease. The operation was to somehow get the 'Nice lady' – who was apparently a hacker extraordinaire – to hack into secure Chinese servers and obtain some crucial data off it. How it was done was apparently irrelevant – all that the ISA wanted was the hacker at a secure facility nearby at a specified time and willing to hack the that wasn't difficult enough – Shaw didn't have much time to gather much intel on the lady. All she had was a photograph, a name "Samantha Greenfield" and an address. What surprised Shaw was that she wasn't assigned a partner on this case, but she just assumed that being the 'baby' of the whole agency – they just handed her the easiest case for the time-being.

The cherry at the top of this cake would be that this hacker seemed like an absolutely harmless little puppy, bumbling and bumping into every second object in the house. How exactly she was supposed to get this little mouse to willingly hack servers for her – well that was going to be a challenge.

 _Well I do like my conquests the hard way._

Besides, the first objective of course was to survive the hot, humid weather of Bishop, Texas while dressed completely in black.

After what felt like ages, Samantha finally left her house, leaving the coast all clear for Shaw.

 _Let's roll._

After breaking and entering, Shaw did her routine check of the entire house, looking high and low for any clues that might help. Finding none, she decided the best thing to do was to leave a bug under the computer table and head out. Perhaps stalking the lady would prove to be more helpful.

Pretending to shop at the supermarket was boring; this mission thus far seemed to be too easy for words. Standing as far as she could from Samantha without losing track of her, Sameen couldn't help but wonder if she was right. This homely looking kitten - a hacker? The picture seemed to match – but the attitude? It didn't seem plausible. But again – the thick-rimmed glasses, the obvious awkwardness, the loose hair, the fumbling with the hands – it all smelt like dork alright.

 _Why do I get all the lame people when do I get to shoot people up._

Occasionally – Samantha did look up from her intent shopping and notice Shaw eyeing her intently, but every time she did, Sameen just continued trying to pick stuff up from the lonely supermarket's shelves.

 _At this rate, I'm going to be blowing my brains out soon._

After seeing the hacker fumble with her credit card as she paid for the stuff, Shaw was just about at her limit. Besides, Shaw still had no idea how she was going to approach this lady and ask her to hack servers for her.

Slipping outside and maintaining a considerable distance, Shaw did her best to follow Samantha – hoping that finally this woman would do something interesting. However as the woman kept walking on, any hope of that steadily waned.

Right until the two of you were about to cross an abandoned alleyway – and some guy grabbed Samantha by the shoulder her and dragged her right out of Shaw's sight. Shaw could hear the muffled screams of what she thought was the hacker and rushed quickly. Sure enough – she found Samantha pinned to the wall by a huge, thug – waving a rather nice pistol in her face.

 _Now where does a street thug get a weapon like that._

There wasn't much time to ponder that – as the brunette looked like she was about to die in the ruffian's chokehold, and Sameen had been waiting for something like this since forever. Swinging a blow to the guy's head, he let go of the trembling hacker, who looked like she was about to burst into tears. Shaw managed a few more punches and kicks – the guy almost didn't seem to mind as he backed off and ran away.  
Wishing that he hadn't gotten away so soon, Shaw did feel a bit relieved after all the pent-up nerves from the day. She had quite forgotten about Samantha, who was still shaking as she picked up her glasses which had fallen off, and the bags of groceries that had fallen to the ground.

" You okay?" Shaw tried, hoping that this was her way to somehow get closer to the lady.

" Yeah, fine – nothing like a good roughing up to shake some sense into you."

After helping her as much as she could manage, Shaw decided that the easiest thing with these 'friendly' people was to talk her way through.

" You live far from here?" Shaw prodded, spite knowing very well exactly where she lived.

" Not really. And thanks for that." the hacker mumbled, finally standing up and beginning to walk away. Shaw knew she had to get a jump-start on things if she had to get this hacker, so she decided that 'friendliness' would somehow help.

"I'm Sameen. Shaw. Call me Shaw." Shaw quickly recovered, and she would have kicked herself for that.

 _Sameen? Since when did you introduce yourself as Sameen?_

The hacker didn't seem to mind the note of hostility in what she had said though, because she was immediately grinning this innocent smile and holding out a hand.

" Samantha. You can call me Root."

"Root?" Shaw asked, taking the hacker's hand, which was still faintly trembling.

"It's a programming thing, Superuser of Computers, you know?"

Shaw really didn't know, but she didn't mind. So far, two things were confirmed – One, this was the woman and two –the name Root definitely did not suit this woman at all. This woman seemed the more rambling, nervous and anxious kind, and less like the self-assured and cocky hackers she was used to.

 _Well orders are orders._

So Shaw did her best to maintain the most mundane small talk with 'Root', asking her what she did and walking along with her at the same time. Root, on the other hand was such an affable person, giggling at little jokes and blushing very easily. All this Shaw noted but she had to keep reminding herself of why she was actually here whilst trying to think of ways to get Root on board with her operation.

In all honesty – Shaw couldn't see this hacker just nodding her head with a grin if she asked her to hack into international servers for her, so Shaw could see one thing clearly.

 _This is going to need a lot more planning._

Root – well Root just wouldn't shut up – talking about her 'poor old mother' who she was looking after here, and about her programming stuff.

After leaving Root at her doorstep and making sure that she got in fine, Shaw slinked back to her little makeshift loft, a plan slowly forming in her head.

Shaw didn't stop to think why exactly her job was to get ahold of this particular hacker and get her – but she should have.

* * *

Root, after getting home, rushed to the window to check if Sameen was still out there. She knew very well that she wouldn't be able to stalk Sameen back to wherever she was lodging – but that was quite unnecessary. Seeing that Sameen had truly left, Root made a very important phone call, picked up her keys and rushed out again to the abandoned alleyway, the one she had been 'assaulted' at.

Out of the shadows stepped out the very thug that had assaulted her, holding up her Double Tap Pistol.

"Nice work Thomas. Next time pretend to fight back though." she genuinely advised, her face a mixed with playfulness and seriousness, holding out her hand to get her pistol back.

" Whatever lady – just pay me my money." the thug shrugged, placing the gun back in her hand. Root couldn't deny – the whole evening's nerves were half pretense – and half because she was worried about this idiot mishandling her precious pistol.

 _Never again. I should have packed more guns._

"Oh Thomas, don't you know the first rule of business?" Root inquired, all the time loading her pistol with a fresh magazine and making sure that it was all in order.

"What?"

" Don't mess with the lady that has the bullets to the gun." Root finished with a sweet smile, holding out the gun and aiming it right at the guy's chest. Thomas, scared out of his wits tried to run – again.

Root shook her head at that and fired a shot right into the back of the guy, who immediately fell to the ground, yelling out loud. Root, in her fashion, slowly walked up to the screaming, squirming body on the ground and lined up another shot – straight to the head.

"Amateurs."she sighed, sauntering out of the alleyway.


	2. Alice in Chains: Heaven Besides You

_Why is she like this._

Shaw was lying on Root's extremely comfy bed and in the middle of a lazy day-dream. She had managed to weasel her way into Root's house - under the pretext of getting some help with her laptop. It had barely been 30 minutes since she stepped foot into the house and she was already lulled by the hacker's sweet voice.

"It wasn't you - was it?" Root smiled, turning back to get a glance at Shaw and getting back to typing away immediately. Shaw was reluctant to admit that she hadn't heard a word Root had said, she was already lost in her little day dream.

Shaw, for one , could not understand the turmoil she was going through. A few days of impromptu bumping into Root here and there had wasted a lot of time, and eventually led to this. This was her last ditch attempt to get the mission over with -seeing that her deadline to deliver the hacker was 9pm this evening. What Shaw couldn't comprehend was why she couldn't deal with this hacker as callously as she had imagined herself to. Shaw could have easily gone on with her plan without spending the whole morning on Root's bed - but she couldn't. What was this feeling - guilt? - that she was drawing this poor puppy into something so out-of-this-world? Shaw couldn't place it. All she knew was that she felt just a tiny bit better, spending the morning at Root's and hoping that this would help ease her conscience - no matter how tiny it was.

Root - on the other hand, wasn't helping Shaw's guilt much. Dressed in a pair of cotton pajamas with _Garfield and Odie_ cartoons all over and fluffy, it was all just sinking Shaw's resolve.

 _Stop it Shaw, you know you're going to do it._

Shaw knew very well that she was going to go on with her plan, irrespective of what she 'felt', but she did know she would have a hard time getting over the fact that she dragged an innocent woman unnecessarily into a huge mess.

Lying on her bed and trying to mentally argue with herself, Shaw's thoughts took another turn as well. Seeing Root so happy and cheery in the most boring of towns, hearing her cheery voice ramble on in this rather endearing way - sort of made Shaw long for something she didn't realize she desired.

 _Perhaps mediocrity isn't as bad as I thought it was._

It was in the middle of all these jumbling thoughts that Shaw finally caught the last of Root's question.

"What?" Shaw asked, sitting up and snapping out of her daydream, shaking it off.

"That guy who assaulted me the other day? He was found shot dead?I was just curious if you had anything to do with that." Root reiterated, still typing away at Shaw's laptop. Shaw was immediately on guard. She hadn't killed that guy, she hadn't even know the guy was dead, but the fact that Root was asking her that question immediately made her jump to the conclusion that Root had discovered who Shaw really was.

Shaw sat still for a minute, her face concentrated on the back of Root's head. For those 60 seconds, Shaw had no idea what she could do if her cover was blown, and was kicking herself for not thinking of this contingency.

Root, turned around once again to see Shaw so still and silent, like an animal ready to pounce.

"It was just a joke." Root offered with a chuckle, and at that Shaw felt such relief. Of course Root hadn't figured out who she was. The woman was too bloody naive and innocent and adorable. _Ugh_.

Shaw offered a soft smile at that, and Root's phone - _or was that a pager?_ \- started to buzz. Root immediately got up at that, picking it up and apologizing to Shaw.

"I'm so sorry Sameen, it's mom - have to go check on her now."

Root's mother - was an in a coma and in the last stages of dying a painful death. Root had rambled on about how she tried to explain to her mother that death would be much better and infinitely less painful than staying alive on a number of machines, but her mother hadn't agreed and so was now just barely breathing and living on constant life support.

"She didn't want to die in a hospital, so I had them move all the equipment here." Root had explained when she had shown Shaw around the house.

Shaw nodded at that, and the minute Root was out of the room, immediately started snooping on Root's computer for any intel, but she had no luck. There were pages and pages of code, but Shaw couldn't make head or tail of it. She tried her best of find anything, but it was all in vain.

Music started to play from somewhere downstairs, something grunge - and Shaw could hear Root's footsteps coming back - but she still couldn't stop searching Root's computer. Sure enough, Root did enter a few seconds later, but wasn't at all shocked at seeing Shaw peruse through her computer files.

"Wanna see something cool?" Root grinned, walking over to Shaw and leaning over Shaw, typing away at the computer.

Shaw was doing everything to not focus on the fact that Root was so close to her, and the guilt she was feeling, so she tried to listen to the music that was playing downstairs.

 _Like the coldest winter chill, Heaven besides you - Hell within_

 _Like the coldest winter will, Heaven besides you - Hell within_

 _And you think you have it still, Heaven inside you._

The lyrics did hit quite close to home for Shaw, so she had to snap out of that too, sadly.

"Nice music isn't it? Mother always liked grunge, and rock. I like to play it - I think she can hear it." Root rambled, swiftly typing away at the computer.

"THERE!" She exclaimed, running some sort of simulator - which to Shaw's surprise - started to play something that looked like an animated dog.

 _OH dear God, why am I doing this to this sweet woman._

Root, when on to show everything the dog could do (which looked like everything), and even got Sameen to agree to let her install the damn program on her own computer. Shaw felt that agreeing to everything the hacker was suggesting would help her go on with her plan.

* * *

 _Time's running out Shaw_.

It was 4:36 in the evening, and Shaw knew she couldn't delay any further. Root had stepped out once again to check on her mom, and Shaw knew that she had delayed too much - and now she was going to have to kidnap this woman in front of her invalid mother.

 _I am bad person._

Shaw silently crept downstairs and into the huge make-shift bedroom where Root's mother was in her vegetative state, all the monitors and machinery making a loud racket and covering any sound Shaw made. Shaw had expected Root to be there too, but she wasn't. This gave Shaw some time to pull out the injection she had in her pocket and ready herself to shove into Root's neck. The injection had some sort of drug which would make Root extremely suggestive and compliant, and most importantly - make her forget the whole episode that would follow. Another advantage of the drug would be that it would slow down her heart rate rapidly - thus making sure Root would not be in a frenzy whilst she was being whisked away to hack the servers.

Shaw hardly breathed, deciding to wait for Root to make her appearance instead of going after her.

 _I'm so sorry Mrs. Greenfield._

Shaw suddenly noticed something in the metallic reflection off one of the medical machines surrounding Root's mother. She was already armed with her injection - and was ready to attack Root with it - when she caught Root's image in the reflection. She couldn't see much of Root's face, just her mouth and her neck, but the sinister smile she saw was enough to send a shiver down her spine.

All of a sudden - nothing made sense to Shaw. She was about to try and piece all she knew together - but it was too late.

What happened next was all a blur.


	3. The Who: Eminence Front

_Are you seriously flopping on the floor!_

Shaw couldn't decipher much, she couldn't put together all that had happened in the last 43 seconds - but there were a few things Shaw could make out. One was - she had been tasered, and the next thing was that the injection wasn't in her hand anymore. _Did Root tackle me? Did she pull the injection out of my arm? What the fuck is going on here - why the Taser? Is she going to kill me?_

Shaw didn't realize that she had been absolutely still for about 5 minutes, unable to move after the effect of the electricity through her body. All she could move were her eyeballs - and from her rather odd position of lying prostate on the floor - Shaw couldn't exactly see what Root was doing. It took all of her grit to drag her head away and try to make out what was happening.

Perception was rather twisted for Shaw - her heart was thumping fast, and everything else around her seemed slowed down significantly, she was taking note of all the minute details she could grasp - the hard floor on her face, her feet hot inside her thick shoes, the rock music still playing away, Root's incoherent voice - amongst other stimuli. It took a while till Shaw managed to concentrate enough on Root and what she was doing.

Root had slid to her mother's side on the rather small bed and was holding her still mother close to her chest, as if consoling her. Shaw could make out Root softly comforting her - reassuring her she was okay.

Shaw was about to jump to the conclusion that perhaps Root had tased her out of some wild act of self-defense, and was in her weird way - thinking she was helping her mother. And that was when Shaw noticed the injection sticking out of Root's mother's chest.

Shaw gasped at that, and in her hapless state - sounded more like a bear grunting in pain. She clawed and willed herself to get up and get to Root already and strangle her right away - but all Shaw managed to do was lift up her arm and clutch at the mattress of the bed.

Shaw, for the life of her - could not understand what was going on. _This has GOT to be a dream_. Shaw was fumbling and doing her best to regain mobility, when the music playing on entered her head.

 _Come and join the party dressed to kill._

 _Won't you come and join the party - dressed to kill?_

Shaw finally managed a burst of energy - deciding that she was not going to let herself be killed by someone dressed in cartoon pajamas and fluffy shoes. Gasping hard and clutching everything her hands grabbed tightly, Shaw managed to prop herself up and stare at Root in disbelief.

Root was as calm as ever, softly whispering some soothing words to her mother and holding her close.

"She'll. Cardiac arrest!" Shaw blurted, pausing at odd places to finish that sentence. _That must have been one helluva taser._

"I know. Thank you so much Sameen."

 _What?!_

Shaw stared back in disbelief, slowly regaining her energy.

 _The woman's crazy._

"It was killing me to see her in such pain - " Root began, melodramatic and composed, as if she was finally at peace. "I mean - my mother is terrified of injections Sameen - She wouldn't have liked all the machines poking and painfully keeping her alive."

Shaw wasn't listening much, trying to make out something from any of the monitors around the bed, except Root had carefully turned them all off.

"What doing!"

"I didn't do anything Sameen. I tried, believe me - I tried - but I couldn't bring myself to do it. I needed your help, and I'm so grateful for it." Root went on, looking on earnestly and innocently at Shaw, as if nothing has happened.

 _I've got to save her. Never operated after being tased before._ Shaw tried to stand up, pulling herself up using the bed. _What did I do._

As if in a flash - Shaw suddenly remembered Root tackling her from behind and as she were about to fend her off - Root had made the surprising move of taking Shaw's hand forcing it done onto to her mother's chest - and just as Shaw pushed Root off her, Root tased her and made her fall right to the floor.

 _Did she just make me euthanize her own mother?_

Shaw finally took a step towards Root, in order to pull the crazy woman away from her mother - but Root, cool and collected, simply tased Shaw once again.

The second tase was too much for Shaw and she blacked out.

Root, on the other hand, learnt the valuable lesson that Tasers were rather weak and not up to her mark on torture tools.

* * *

When Shaw finally came to, which wasn't too long after thankfully, she was zip-tied and rather drained from her evening of being tased. _Twice_. She was in a car, _her car_ , in the passenger's seat, while Root, who was still in her pajamas and fluffy shoes, was driving.

"I know I owe you an explanation Sameen, but I just want to thank you again for everything so far." Root began, driving on.

"What the hell is going on!" Shaw demanded, not all liking being tied up like this. And much to Shaw's surprise, she couldn't move her arms much, not even to try and break the ties.

 _Shit._

"I know you were supposed to kidnap me and take me to the secure facility outside of Texas to hack those servers." Root began with a revealing smile.

"How do you know that." Shaw spat out, glad that at least she could manage some rough talk.

"Because I was the one who sent you on that mission."

Shaw could not believe what she was hearing. That makes no sense whatsoever. _I work for the ISI - not for the deranged!_

"I know, I know - you work for the ISI - and it must be such a shock that they have horrible encryption keys."

 _What is she talking about._

"See, I knew that the ISI works for some sort of government sanctioned Batman program - but what I couldn't understand was where their intel was coming from."

 _Even I don't care about that, lady._

"So, of course, I tried hacking into one of their missions - and the intel - seemed to be just arriving out of thin air - which is absurd right?" Root rambled, as if Shaw understood any of that.

"So I kept hacking and hacking, until once - I caught a glimpse of her."

 _Who?_

"It was the most flawless piece of code Sameen, it felt like someone had chiseledher to perfection." Root went on, so overcome with emotion that she was breathless and on the verge of tears just at the recollection of this code.

Shaw grunted at that, seeing that she had no other choice but to go with this crazy hacker, wherever she was going.

 _And to think you almost fell in love with her Shaw. Dumbass._

"You don't understand how poignant that moment was, it felt like she had revealed herself just to me, and I knew that I had to get closer. That's where you come in."

 _Oh now I'm part of this story._

"I tried hacking back, but nothing worked. That's when I realized."

 _She needs to get to the secure server network._

"I needed to get to one of your ISI secure hubs if I wanted another glimpse of her. I mean - it's not that I needed it - " Root grinned, apparently forgetting that her mother had just died a few hours ago.

"I could hack those and enter them too - but then she would know - and she would hide herself."

 _Is this life or this is some futuristic Greek comedy I'm in!_

"So I simply hacked the ISI mission servers and gave their latest recruit a very important mission."

"And was euthanasia a part of that too!" Shaw snarled, not allowing herself to be charmed by Root's charming demeanor.

"Well, you just played right into my hands there, it was me you contacted me, asking for ideas on how to get me." Root smiled sweetly back.

Shaw grunted at that, seeing that Root was right. She just threw her head back and decided to gather her energy for when she would need it, after all - one of the reasons Root was dragging her across the country was because of her own security clearance at the facility.

 _Along with biometric clearance._

 _I'm going on a road trip with a crazy hacker in Garfield pajamas. What could possibly go wrong._


	4. The Smiths: Nowhere Fast

_Apologies for the delay in finishing this - I had long hours to work at the Shipyard and then just had a jaw realignment surgery to make my teeth properly, so life hasn't exactly been too free for me, till now that is. I am aware it is premiere day, and perhaps I needed seeing them again on my screen to reassure myself._

 _Anyhoo - without further adieu - the story._

* * *

Shaw, seeing that she was pretty helpless in the situation she was in - had given up fighting the paralytics Root had given her, and decided to just go with whatever Root had planned. For the most part, Shaw was unconscious, save when Root was driving rather haphazardly, which was quite often. Shaw was still trying to wrap her head around all that Root had just told her, quite unable to fathom that this perky madcap was the one who had given her the whole job. _And why again?_ Shaw was too dazed and drugged to follow her own thoughts, and slowly blinking into the darkness that Root was driving into - fell into a deep sleep.

* * *

When Shaw did regain her senses, the first thing she did fix her mind on was the fact that she could not move her hands. At all. Or her legs. She could feel her heart rate gradually rising in panic but after struggling for a few minutes with no avail, Shaw was convinced that she was perhaps still asleep. That was until she caught sight of Root, a drastically different one from the one that had tasered, drugged and dragged her here.

Root was dressed in a Catholic habit, complete with the black head-piece and a rosary around her neck. With that angelic look on her face as she busily typed away at a laptop - Root did come off as a perfectly holy nun.

 _I made it to heaven? In a car?_

Shaw widened her eyes in disbelief at Root, who was busy readying different things - a laptop, a few phones amongst other things.

 _I better be dead._

It took a long time for Shaw to mentally shake and snap back to herself. By then, Root was ready to set her own plan in action.

"Good to see you're awake Sam. Hope the ride wasn't too bumpy."

 _I always thought Heaven had a staircase._

Slurring a bit, Shaw was surprised to find that she could talk. _What concoction of drugs did this psycho give me._

"What - ?" was all she could manage at first, the sight of the "Nun", who was busy setting up a wheelchair, for some reason.

"Of course I knew your secure hub was here " Root explained whilst straightening out the wheelchair, briefly pointing to the high steeple in front, "but in order to get across without committing any more felonies would require a bit of improvisation. So, let's say I had to borrow a few things from a friendly sister there." Root continued, gesturing with her hand to an fair woman lying unconscious on a far-off bench.

 _Of course it's a church. Freakin' Texas._

Though it wasn't late, there seemed to be a mass going on, and Shaw was on the verge of giving up understanding everything that Root was saying till Root opened the passenger side door and grinned.

"Ready to break into a church basement?"

Shaw, narrowing her eyes in confusion - was ready for anything but. Her memories from the evening were coming back to her now. _Did I effectively euthanize her mother?_

Before Shaw could manage a coherent thought, Root was already cutting her ties and with surprising strength, lifted Shaw carefully from the car to the wheelchair.

 _This is getting weirder by the minute._

 _Is this her mother's wheelchair!_

Hands limp by her side, Shaw was all but screaming in her head for her hands to move, at least a little.

 _Come on, give me a finger, a muscle - anything!_

But Shaw was totally numb in her limbs, utterly unable to move. Root, arms full with all the things she needed, came over to Shaw and promptly dumped them all on Shaw's lap. Shaw winced that she couldn't feel a thing, and was slowly growing wild.

"Relax Sameen, it's just a little muscle relaxer. You'll be back to wrangling whoever you want soon." Root smiled, setting her guns and phone on Sameen's lap as well, and lifting Shaw's arms, setting them carefully within the wheelchair, wrapped up Shaw and all the things in her lap under a huge blanket.

 _I'm gonna die under this._

"Okay Sam, it's Go time." Root nodded, checking the time and stooped to set Shaw's feet on the footrest of the wheelchair. Shaw noticed that Root still had her fluffy little slippers on underneath the habit, and could have slapped herself in the face for that.

 _What have I been reduced to._ Shaw groaned as Root wheeled her into the church.

Rolling into the massive church, Shaw noticed that the whole congregation were in fact nuns. Shaw could immediately see that Root had needed the disguise - unless she wanted to commit mass murder in a church.

 _Not that I put it past her._

Root, almost wild and uncontrollable with excitement, was doing her best to act casual as she wheeled a very vexed Shaw towards the pulpit. She wasn't aware off the plans of the church - but she knew that the basement didn't have an exit at the back, which meant she would have to get Sameen to the basement via some doorway inside the church. Root was tersely scanning the church for a door. Anything.

Meanwhile, Shaw could feel the tips of her fingers slightly tingling, which meant whatever Root had injected into her was probably wearing off. Shaw, thinking more clearly - was trying her best to hatch a plan to stop Root. She knew that the basement would be deserted and the second she gave Root access to the basement computer - would have 10 minutes till ISA agents showed up. She would have to make sure that Root didn't do anything drastic in those 10 minutes. Carefully feeling with her half numb hand under the blanket for the jumble of things that were on her lap to make sure nothing fell down, Shaw felt about for Root's pistol.

The duo were busy in intensely concentrating on their own plans, when a strict-faced nun walked up to Root, making the two snap back to reality.

"And what are you doing her - sister - ?" The nun began in a haughty almost reproachful tone.

"Samantha." Root replied, smiling broadly and doing her best to look holy and meek, hoping that was a valid name.

"Well?"

"Actually my dear friend from school here, Caroline" Root began, spinning a tale with no difficulty at all, "confessed to me that she was rather sinful today, and begged me that I take her to the nearest church, just so that she could feel at peace with herself and God." Root explained, with that innocent and naive expression she wore with ease. Shaw was about to object to that vehemently - but that ended up in her gagging on her breath.

"She isn't in the prime of health exactly." Root offered in a hushed tone, shifting a little and sliding her hand through the sleeve of the large-sized habit, drew a pistol which she had hidden in her pajamas underneath and aimed it right at the nun. She was sure that the huge folds of the habit hid what she was doing.

 _Now did I screw the silencer in or not._

Root had no qualms about shooting this nun right here, if she asked anymore questions. She had done her best to avoid this, but things were getting late, and she was running out of time.

The nun, after a scrutinizing look at Root's pleading face and Shaw still gagging, decided to give in. With her stern gaze and stiff face, she nodded slightly and at that Root, took the bait, put the gun back and rushed Shaw to the altar.

"You were the one who killed your mother." Shaw sputtered, between gasps for breath.

"You were the one who sinned today, Sameen." Root countered melodiously, spotting a door right behind the altar, behind the huge crucifix. Almost knocking Shaw out of the wheelchair as she pulled her up the two steps that led to the altar, Root finally reached the door and seeing that this spot behind the crucifix wasn't conspicuous to others, pulled out her pistol and screwing in the silencer - fired a shot at the lock of the door.

 _Nun with a gun. Not something you see everyday._

The shot echoed slightly through the church, slightly shaking it's walls. Everyone had looked up from their prayer or conversation to see what had caused such a disturbance, and finding nothing, went back to their doings. Root smirked and tossed the gun to Sameen's lap, on top of the blanket.

"For future reference, I don't believe in God." Shaw muttered, bumping as Root wheeled her down the stairs to the empty basement.

"Neither did I, till I almost touched her." Root replied, finally reaching the base of the steps.

 _What is she talking about._

Root was now running around the different rooms of the basement, ruffling the collection boxes as she tried to find the secret vestibule to the computer, and finding it - ran back to Shaw to wheel her there. Shaw knew what would be there - and had mentally given up trying to fight this woman - leaving it up to the two agents who would be picking Root up.

Root lined up Shaw to the front of the large fake-wooden door, which was more resilient than it looked - fitted with a small fingerprint scanner into the handle.

"I can't exactly lift my hands here." Shaw rolled her eyes.

"Right, sorry." Root apologized, carefully lifting Shaw's hand and placing it on the handle, and wrapping her hands firmly around Shaw's, gripped the handle hard and pressed down.

 _So much for romantic moments. Wait - what did I just think?_ Shaw pondered in her head, while a faint click sounded, meaning that the door actually opened. Root jumped in glee and pushed the door ajar, wheeling Shaw inside quite hastily.

The first thing Root did was pull out the wires from the two camera's trained on the entrance, and Shaw was in misery at that. That was her only hope of someone realizing the whole situation and sending backup quicker.

Root wheeled Shaw up to the only computer at the corner of the room, and gleefully booted it up.

"I can't believe I finally get to meet her!"

Shaw was still reeling from the awkward thought she just had, and was doing her best to not be amused at a nun almost skipping for joy. The computer was locked, and the only way to unlock it was with a retina scanner. Root, finding the rather cleverly hidden scanner, positioned it carefully in front of Shaw's eye, and with bated breath, waited for the computer to unlock.

"All that's keeping me from her are your pretty brown eyes Sameen" she gleamed, and after login was successful, Root quite literally shoved Shaw out of the way and began madly typing at the computer.

 _10 minutes._ Shaw gulped, trying to figure out what Root was doing, and finally gripping the gun which she found on her lap under the blanket, was trying to get her hand to aim and fire at Root. It was quite hard, with Root typing away extremely fast for Shaw to follow, and Shaw wasn't exactly fond of having her attention divided. Taking pains to get the gun in a decent position to fire, Shaw was doing all she could, and after she got the pistol in a decent position, it was time to pull the trigger.

 _Come on!_

Shaw was sweating heavily, and the trigger clearly needed a lot of strength to fire. Shaw could all but scream in anger at the gun, desperately using all the might she could muster to just pull the damn trigger.

Right when Shaw felt the trigger give way however, the gun also moved a bit, and Shaw ended up firing a round at the wall behind Root instead of at Root, but it made her jump quite a bit. At that very moment, two agents appeared at the door, and Shaw was ready to sigh in relief.

Root quick to notice the two agents, immediately grabbed her gun from Shaw's lap and deftly fired two shots at both the agents, right to the head. Shaw would have been impressed, if she wasn't busy despairing.

 _Oh shit. Now what._

"You saved me." Root stared wide-eyed at Shaw, using her hand to push the headpiece from her head to the floor. Shaw, who was already spent, for the last time, completely and resolutely gave up trying to do anything, surrendering herself to Root's whims.

"You saved me."Root repeated, moving closer to Shaw, bending down to look at her, her hand gently cupping the side of Shaw's sweaty face.

"Yeah." Shaw breathed, going with the flow of things.

Root spent a lingering moment staring at Shaw, and suddenly remembering what was going on, came back to her senses.

"We should go. There'll be other agents here soon." Root concluded, pulling out a pen-drive she had stuck in the computer and firing a shot at the CPU, began wheeling Shaw out of the little room.

As quietly and as quickly as she could, Root wheeled Shaw out of the church, tired and gasping. Root was quite drained from the long day herself, stopping for a moment outside the church to catch her breath. Till she saw a black sedan rush almost crash into the walls of the church as two more agents jumped out and ran into the church.

"Looks like your friends are quite prompt Sam." Root groaned, and before Shaw could manage another shot with the pistol, to get the agents attention , Root was already running her towards her car.

Shaw was soon secured back to the passenger seat and Root, hurriedly tearing off the habit, forgetting to take off the rosary - was busy making sure she had taking all she needed to and rushed into the car, and a few seconds later, the two were driving back to the city.

"Where now." Shaw grunted, wondered why she hadn't yelled at the agents to get their attention instead.

"Airport. We've got a flight to catch."

"We?"

"Yes." Root affirmed, and Shaw could have kicked herself at that. _This isn't over yet._

"I was going to kill you in that room there." Root explained, driving as rash as ever, "but then you saved my life. So looks like I'm going to need an extra ticket."

"Where are we going?" Shaw groaned, her hopes sinking deeper and deeper.

"New York." Root grinned, her eyes shining with rapture. Whatever she was looking for back there, she clearly found it.

* * *

Arriving at the airport, Shaw was glad that she could feel her legs again, and hopefully run and get some help, when Root appeared again with the wheelchair. For a second, Shaw betrayed an expression of faint surprise, but soon wiped it off her face. Allowing Root to lift her up again and set her in the wheelchair, Shaw was about to try her wobbly legs again, when Root stuck another injection in her neck.

 _Not again._

"Sorry Sameen, can't have you conscious in the cargo hold."


	5. Pink Floyd: Welcome to The Machine

When Shaw woke up again, she was quite surprised that she was rather cold. As if it was -

 _Snow!_

Shaw stirred, looking around and seeing snow and what looked like garbage, immediately got up and dusted herself.

 _Am I in New York?_

Shaw tried to recollect all that happened that ended up with her here, but couldn't remember much. Last she could remember was Root in Texas, and the long day she had spent with her listening to her babble about computer code. She really couldn't decipher what it was she was doing here. Nor where she got the coat and the clothes she was wearing.

All Shaw knew was that the last the remembered was that she liked Root, possibly a little too much - but somehow there was some apprehension in her head about it.

A phone buzzed in her pocket, and Shaw pulled it out, surprised that there was a rather familiar talking dog on it. Shaw couldn't make head or tail of it, till the image of the dog distorted and became a blank screen with a # blinking in the top corner.

 _What the hell?_

 **"Hello Sameen. Sorry for the hospitality conditions. You know how bad New York gets sometimes."**

 _Root! Where is she?_ Shaw couldn't remember why, but she felt like she had to kill this woman, which was quite confusing because she thought she liked her.

 **"Where are you."** Shaw typed back, and before she could press send, there was already a reply.

 **"Not farther than you think."**

Shaw finally realized that the talking dog app was actually a bug Root had put in this phone, and was about to smash the phone, when she reconsidered that, and decided to try and gather some intel of her own.

 **"I found her Sameen, the Machine. And soon, I'm gonna meet the man who made God himself."**

 **"The Machine?"**

 **"You won't understand now Sameen, perhaps the next time we meet."**

 **"I'm killing you the next time we meet."** Shaw typed, quite unable to stop herself.

 **"Aww, sweetie, you're going to be deceased by the time we meet next. She hinted at that."**

 **"I'll take you with me then."**

 **"Who said that you'll be dead?"**

 **"You just did."**

 **"This is why I can't explain it to you now."**

 **"What is going on Root."**

 **"The ISA is going to contact you soon, with your actual first assignment, and you can go back to being a monkey who takes orders."**

 **"Where are you"**

 **"I'm sorry Sameen, I've got people to meet now and if it makes things any better, I know we'll meet soon."**

 **"Take care Sam."**

With that the chat screen went dead, as did Shaw's phone, and smashing it against the ground, Shaw walked off, trying her figure out her next move, and tried to remember what exactly Root looked like - and she was surprised she couldn't remember. Walking by a cafe filled with people on their laptop, Shaw sighed and walked on, disgruntled that she couldn't find Root now.

* * *

Root on the other hand, was sitting in the very cafe that Shaw passed, and grinning at the laptop, looked at the street to see Shaw begrudgingly walk away. Root was sure that she and Sameen would cross paths soon, the Machine had hinted at that too - so she wasn't too sad at her departure.

 _This is just temporary Sameen, till we meet again, we've got things to do. Important things that will line up destiny._

Peering at the cafe opposite the one she was in, Root was trying to spot the man who made God herself. The data she had collected had led Root to this very place, and for that she was eternally grateful to Shaw - but Root knew that the closest way to get to The Machine would be to get close to this man, and she was so ecstatic that she was chatting with him. Eager to get closer to God, Root grinned as she typed away in her terminal.

#You can call me Root.

#root

#root

#root

#root


End file.
